Harrow take note, Local gov’t should tweet more

The report encourages councils to employ internet communication tools as a cheap and simple way of informing the public and delivering services. At present, many councils see sites like Twitter as a security risk and block access to them.

According to the man behind Social media: why ICT management should lead their organisations to embrace it:

“Use of social media has exploded, appearing on the radar of ICT managers, but mostly for the wrong reasons.”

Chris Head argues that councils need to be educated about the benefits of social media. He said:

“The term “social” implies “not related to work”, but this is a fallacy.”

It’s a point politicians in the Harrow area could take on board. According to Tweetminster, there are over 300 constituencies now represented (by MPs and/or PPCs) on Twitter.

Yet our politicians are fairly quiet on the social media front. Since Harrow Council joined Twitter in July 2009, they have posted a paltry 37 messages.